Consumers’ intention to purchase electric vehicles: Influences of user attitude and perception

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been developed as an efficient solution to reduce automobile emissions. To ensure the effective diffusion of EVs in current transport systems, it is vital to understand the factors affecting consumers’ intentions to purchase EVs. To provide insights for this understanding, this study aims to investigate such factors with a particular focus on users’ attitudes and perceptions. A questionnaire survey was conducted in September 2019 among potential consumers in the major cities of South Korea. A total of 1500 valid survey responses were obtained, and investigations using binary logistic regression and regression tree were conducted for an empirical analysis. The results showed that among attitudinal attributes, environmental and economic perceptions concerning EV use were the strongest predictors for an EV purchase. In addition, technological concerns were found to have negative impacts on EV purchase intentions. The findings of this study could provide reasonable guidelines for establishing marketing strategies and serve as a reference for EV stakeholders to improve the applicability of current policies regarding EV adoption.